‘American Horror Story: Coven’ Recap: ‘Protect the Coven’

Episode 11 of ‘American Horror Story: Coven’ begins with a flashback to 1830 with Delphine on her first day in New Orleans. We watch her kill for the first time, chopping a chicken’s head off, her eyes fixated on the blood spattering out of its neck. When one of her slave boys gets injured, her obsession with blood turns full circle and the tortures begin. It’s in that moment that she became the bloodthirsty sadist Madame LaLaurie.

Next we see the coven surrounding Nan’s coffin — remember, she lost her life by falling in the bathtub, aka being drowned in it. Unfortunately Misty isn’t around to bring Nan back from the dead (Madison took care of that last episode). Nan’s funeral is interrupted when Queenie arrives (she’s alive!) with her pet Delphine (they’re both back!) in tow, leash and all. With Nan’s death and Misty’s disappearance, the coven realizes that no one is safe until the Corporation is dealt with.

Reinstated as the maid of the house, Delphine recounts her past. One prime recollection is how even as a child she entertained herself by cutting the limbs off animals to see how they could survive. She explains this all the while giving mani-pedis to Fiona and Laveau. Of course she finds ways to rebel, like using Madison’s unflushed ‘waste’ to make a soup that Myrtle thinks is absolutely divine. Culinary revenge at its finest.

When Myrtle’s gardener comes in with a cut hand, Delphine harkens back to the joys of being Madame LaLaurie and realizes that her passion, what makes her feel alive, is torturing black people. She brings the gardener up to Spalding’s old room and ties him up like the slave from her first kill. Ah, the memories. She tells us how their screams provided her comfort and their bodies a way for her to explore her scientific curiosities. With that she melts back into her past self and snips his toes off with gardening shears, little piggy by piggy.

A meeting has been set with the Corporation, and Fiona and Laveau are counting on the Corporation, Delphi Trust, the Witch Hunters Society, to do their worst. The ladies make a fashionable entrance to their meeting, though what goes down is less of a negotiation and more of a list of demands. Delphi’s offer is a 100-year truce, but the ladies are not impressed. They counter with their own demands — the witch hunters cannot harm any witches until the end of time, and the head of Delphi must surrender his home to Fiona — she has an eye for real estate. Of course they decline, so instead the Axe Man (posing cleverly as a bartender) does what he does best: He kills them all. All but one. The head of Delphi is taken out by none other than Fiona herself, ax in hand.

After the funeral, Zoe finds she isn’t satisfied with the explanation of how Nan died, so she does her witch thing over the bathtub and finds out the truth: Fiona and Laveau killed Nan. As usual, Madison has no feelings on the matter, but poor Zoe always needs resolution. And again the girls fight over their pet Kyle, which has decided he wants to be with Zoe only. That doesn’t bode well with sharing-is-caring Madison, who throws a witchy hissy fit and makes the bedroom shake, boasting to Kyle that she put him together and can take him apart. What happened to girls just having a classic cat fight?

Fiona is still having fun with the love of her life, the murderous and handsome Axe Man. When he proposes a romantic getaway all she can do is laugh — laugh at the prospect of living a simple life. He tells her a future together is possible. Killing the next supreme would help regain her strength, and they could live out their lives together. The Axe Man is such a romantic.

Delphine’s been spending a lot of time with her science project in the attic, so it comes as no surprise that she meets Spalding’s spirit, who admires her “artistic” work. Spalding, the smart man that he is, tells Delphine she needs to fulfill her purpose. Sure she is cursed, but it could be lifted if the person that cast it died. That’s right, they’re plotting to kill the Voodoo Queen. Spalding has just one request, which is for Delphine to retrieve a very particular item, which turns out to be another doll for his collection. In return he would provide her with a potion that would help her kill Laveau: Benadryl. The tricks you can pull over an immortal woman from the 19th century are many and priceless.

Cordelia, trying to find her place in the coven, meets with Queenie to express how happy she is that the young witch survived. Queenie is accordingly unreceptive, and Cordelia is left contemplating her place in the coven. She will stop at nothing to get her gift of sight back, to be useful to the coven once again, even if it means gauging her eyes out. Which is exactly what she does. This was Cordelia’s sacrifice. To Myrtle a hero, and to Fiona a danger.

Myrtle then calls on Zoe to give her a very expensive piece of jewelry so she could sell it and run away with Kyle in the name of pure and true love. Myrtle doesn’t want Zoe and her dedication to the coven to mean her demise, as it did for her. Myrtle wants her to run, more so if she were the Supreme, because if she doesn’t, Madison, Fiona or the witch hunters may kill her. What is a girl in love to do?

Fiona and Laveau toast to their victory against the Corporation, and with that drink, Fiona goes off to have her sexy, sexy time with the Axe Man. The Voodoo Queen doesn’t know that Delphine has spiked her drink with Benadryl, but it makes no matter because, oh yeah, she’s immortal! Delphine plunging a knife into her chest just makes her angry, but a knock to the head by Spalding renders her unconscious. Sure she can’t die, but being buried does have its merits; Delphine should know. And what does Spalding get out of this deal? A real “living doll” to call his own. Yep, he kidnaps the baby.

In the last scene, we see Zoe trying to get Kyle ready to go on their romantic getaway. Sadly he is afraid of what he could do to her or someone else and refuses to go. Of course their love overcomes this general safety hurdle, and we see them in a montage running to a bus, hand in hand, smiles all around. Sure they may get away, but this is ‘American Horror Story’ and happy endings are rare. We also know Madison has an affinity for turning buses over. Just saying. Stay tuned for Episode 12!

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